Why You Should Re-think Consistency

One of the major areas in my life where I struggled was with consistency.  What I’m talking about here is likely not what you are thinking about when I use this term.  When it comes to fitness and weight-loss goals, we know that consistency is what often makes the difference.  Solid, if not perfect workouts performed 3-4 times a week are going to trump the perfect workout performed sporadically several times a month. 

What I’m talking about here is not consistency in one specific area or pursuit.  Instead, it's about being more consistent with how we prepare and execute for ALL of our important and high-pressure situations.

Using the fitness example, many people are ruthlessly disciplined when it comes to showing up and working hard in the gym or on the Peloton. Unfortunately, many people often never reach their fitness goals because they don’t bring the same level of consistency outside the gym.  They kill it in the gym but lack discipline in their diet or sleeping habits and it hampers their overall progress.

During my military career, I worked hard to ensure I had the skills and attributes to be high-performing operator and leader. When I made mistakes, which I made a lot of, I worked hard to correct them. The problem was that I did not apply this process to other areas of my life. I was not the calm, cool, and collected leader as a father and a husband that I wanted to be-that my family needed me to be. Because I struggled with this at home, it inevitably spilled back over into work as well, negatively impacting my ability to lead. 

When I helped design the Navy's Warrior Toughness Program, it was critical that almost every lesson and technique was translatable to and applicable in dealing with the stress and pressure of combat. Performing in combat however, is just one facet of an effective fighting force. We need our young men and women to have the skills to respond to every stressor in their professional AND personal lives. All of this is essential for mission-readiness.

Being consistent in our preparation and execution in our primary job and in certain areas is simply not good enough.  Being poised in front of the client or C-suite, doesn’t matter much when we are not that same person in front of the people at home that matter the most. Conversely, we can be parent or spouse of the year, but that doesn’t get it done if we crack under pressure at the office and underperform.    

When it comes to the military, Navy SEALs are arguably challenged the most of all U.S. Special Operations Forces when it comes to consistency.  SEAL operators may be conducting combat operations under the water or on a 14,000-foot mountain peak.  In order to gain efficiencies, maximum consistency is applied in preparing and executing in these wildly different environments. Regardless of the environment or tasking, the following sequences are almost always applied;

-       Mission-planning

-       Mission-briefing

-       Rehearsals and contingency walk-throughs

-       Debriefing and after-action review  

-       Equipment maintenance

We can all take a lesson from this by creating a consistent framework towards how we perform under pressure or in challenging situation.  We need to reflect on what we do well and figure out how we can apply those skills or attributes to the performance gaps in the other areas of our lives.  This applies to high-pressure work situations, the family stressors, and even the golf game with our smack-talking friends. 

In order to more consistently approach challenge in the various areas of our lives, we need to answer a few basic questions:

1. Where do we excel? How and why?

2. When it comes performance and responding to stress, what areas in our lives need work?

3. Feeling nervous or a bit anxious is often very natural when it comes to big events but what situations (or people) tend to trigger us, or cause us to get thrown off of our game?

4. Am I consistent in my effort applied to each situation or event?

5. Do I have a consistent mindset when it comes to the different challenges I face?

Once we can answer these simple questions, we can develop routines where we use basic psychology and simple event preparation to ensure consistent performance in all of our important areas. The high-stakes professional settings, the contentious or difficult conversations, and yes, even beating our friends on the golf greens. 

When we use consistent routines, we will begin to fill in our performance gaps while also becoming much more efficient and effective in the areas where are already performing pretty well.